Warthog laser tag

The Warthog from Halo is one of the most beloved video game vehicles. [Tim Higgins] brings the fun to life with his laser tag Warthog game. It uses Barbie Power Wheels toys as a base and adds laser tag weaponry. Xbox 360 controllers are used but just like in Halo, you can’t control the gun and the vehicle at the same time. We’ve encountered [Tim’s] love for water-based amusement before and this did originally start out with a water cannon powered by a wind-shield washer reservoir.

Take a look at the videos after the break as well as his recent post for information about the hardware. His choices for controller circuitry are way overpowered, sourcing an Eee PC to do the heavy lifting. This is because the choices he made were for easy development and not economy of components. A PC has no problem connecting to Xbox 360 controllers, and the modular control boards mean no complicated circuit design or arduous soldering were necessary. In the end, this looks like a ton of fun and we give him bonus points for repainting the pretty pink plastic that comes standard with these models of children’s toys.

Looks like a very nice project. I’m just wondering if it could have been done much cheaper without a computer. An arduino, or even a PIC chip for that matter could handle the “rules” of the game for a fraction of the price of a eee.

Looks like a very nice project. I’m just wondering if it could have been done much cheaper without a computer, Arduino, or even a PIC chip for that matter. All of those are far to expensive. i’m thinking tin foil out of a trash can and some gum off the sidewalk.

Pretty cool and a good way to use that old toy when the kids “outgrow” them.

I did something like this (with smaller cars) years ago. It had a fixed turret (full function vehicle), but the vehicles would get a function “disabled” when hit. That was part of the game play. When you got 3 functions disabled, you lost and the car’s alarm went off flashing a red light. It didn’t use 360 controllers (this was back in 1992~3) but I was able to fit the code in a 6811 (1K) all in assembly ;)

I still would go with an electronic drive, instead of relays, you can always monitor the current if it stalls (MOSFET drives are great). By no means take my comment as bashing: Modern electronics allow this more sophisticated setup become more of a software project.

To those wondering if it can be done without a cpu, yes. The cpu is necessary only for the game rules.